Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

The Betting Man hopes everyone had a merry Christmas and now is ready to ring in 2011 by making some more (mythical) money.

To refresh everyone's memory, TBM finished the regular season up about 600 bucks. Now he's ready to reveal the first of the two bowl games he believes are the smartest plays on the board.

(Note: TBM also will pick the Sugar Bowl and Auburn-Oregon national championship game in keeping with the spirit of the regular-season pick structure.)

But back to that first play. It's the Arizona-Oklahoma State matchup in the Alamo Bowl, to be played Dec. 29.

Anybody who's paid attention to college football this season knows few teams put up points like Oklahoma State. During an impressive regular season in which its only losses were to Oklahoma and Nebraska, Oklahoma State averaged almost 45 points a game. Only once, in fact, did the Cowboys score less than 34 points, and they won that game, 24-14 at Kansas State.

Alamo Bowl opponent Arizona, meanwhile, got off to a 7-1 start before going 0-4 down the stretch. The most impressive win during the fast start? Probably a 34-27 home victory over Iowa in which Arizona had an interception return and kick return for scores.

That 0-4 slide might have been more telling, as it came against the stiffest competition on Arizona's schedule. The Wildcats lost 42-17 at Stanford, 24-21 to USC, 48-29 at Oregon, and 30-29 to Arizona State.

In other words, TBM thinks Oklahoma State's high-flying offense and Arizona's poor performance against good teams is a tasty recipe. Granted, Oklahoma State will be without its punter and deep snapper, but that shouldn't be a problem if the Cowboys don't have to punt.

TBM says: Oklahoma State for $200.
Regular season: 21-16-2, +$601.00
Balance: $1,601.00